20 x x x PROFILé5 x x x I N 1921, Herr Rudolf Kommer, a stout, Mittel-Europa journalist without portfolio, received word through Max Reinhardt's brother that the great impresario wished to confer with him. As a cosmopolite who had translated many English 1?lays for the German stage and who bad spent three wartime years mod- estly serving the cause of old Franz T osef in the United States, he was somewhat optimistically regarded in Berlin as an authority on the vaga- ries of the American playgoer. Pro- fessor Reinhardt was minded to venture a season in New York and it was his idea that the best production for him to make here would be "Das Welt Theater," by Hugo von Hof- mannsthal. What did Herr Kommer think of that idea? With great patience and particularity, Herr Kommer ex- plained that he thought the idea was entirely without merit. Whereupon the mighty Reinhardt smiled vaguely and the conference was over. Six months later Herr Kommer was summoned again to the august pres- ence. It seems that this time the Professor was meditating on the idea of launching an American season with his production of "Das Welt Theater" of Hugo von Hofmannsthal. What did Herr Kommer think of that pro- ject? Suppressing an impulse to shriek, Herr Kommer repeated his grave con- viction that it was a terrible idea. Again the vague, dismissive smile, and, out on the street once more, the unheeded expert began to suspect that great im- presari never really hear unwelcome advice, and are therefore unhampered by the misgivings which stay the hands of lesser men. It was in the hope of verifying this thesis that he responded with alacrity to a third summons some months later. But this time Reinhardt was full of a notion to produce "The Miracle" in New York. What did Herr Kommer think of the idea? Herr Kommer replied with the German . I f " Th ' I O k ." d equIva ent 0 at s more 1 e It an was soon agreeing to all the clauses in a tentative contract by the terms of which he was to precede the other in- comparable Max to America and pave the financial way for him. All the clauses save one. That one made the whole contract depend on the collapse of certain negotiations even then under THE, MYSTERIES OF R.UDOLFO -ç-.... Herr Rudolf Komn1,er way. It seems there was already an- other agent in the field and Kommer was being retained merely as a card up the Reinhardt sleeve. A t this discovery, he was preparing to depart in a huff when curiosity prompted him to ask who this agent might be. It was, they told him, a powerful American theatrical magnate named Colonel von Singer. They had been profoundly impressed by him when he visited Vienna in 1920. Hadn't he bought three motorcars there, and given dinners for at least sixty guests every evening? Even so, Kommer swore he had never heard of him. The Reinhardt office smiled pity- ingly as who should say that Kommer evidently didn't get around much. But by that time his huff had arrived and he departed in it. ^ T intervals thereafter he was taunt- ïl.. ed by telephone with news of the dazzling progress the mysterious von Singer was reporting in his American negotiations. But apparently none of this superb field work bore fruit, for finally it was Kommer, after all, who arrived in New York empowered as sole agent for Professor Reinhardt. Inevitably he thought of his doleful arrival at the same port almost ten years before. Then he had been a fugitive from a prospective internment in Eng- land, where the declaration of war caught him red-handed in the act of serving the Frankfurter Zeitung as its London correspondent. Landing in our town, he was first depressed by the huge news bulletins with which the façade of the Herald Building an- nounced the capture of his native city by the Russians and still another in- glorious German retreat. He did not know then that it was the late Mr. Bennett's policy to announce Ger- man retreats with such magnificent élan that, had they all actually tak- en place, the first contingent of the A.E.F. would have found the Prus- sian Guard fighting with their backs to the Great W all of China. Young Kommer first cheered himself up by buying a gallery seat for Master Irving Berlin's "Watch Your Step," and further restored his spirits by spending a month in the Public Library, placidly reading the accumulated files of Berlin news- papers, access to which had been denied him in England since the outbreak of the war. Then he went to work on a local Germanophile weekly, loyally toiling for some modest wage and never dreaming until long afterwards that other, more vocIferous advocates of the German cause in our town were mak- ing ein schÖner Pfennig out of their ardor. Well, ten years had gone by since those stressful days, and this time he would not walk humbly. Instead, he drove to the Ritz, engaged a suite, and sat him down to compose a fateful note on the hotel stationery. It was ad- dressed to Otto Kahn. Professor Rein- hardt was planning a season in New York. Would Mr. Kahn care to fi- nance it? Mr. Kahn replied that he would be simply delighted. It was as easy as that. Of course there remain- ed some subsequent details' requiring Kommer's supervision. For instance, it was his function to keep a zone of quiet around the engrossed Professor, and this involved constant suppression of minor outbreaks from Morris Gest, the Princess Matchabelli, Jake Shubert, and such. This police work occupied a large part of his days, and it was only after "The Miracle" had been launch- ed in triumph at the Century that he found time to look up and identify his evaporated rival, Colonel von Singer. It turned out to be Leo Singer of Singer's Midgets. E VER since then Kommer has al- ways piloted the Reinhardt craft in foreign waters. But there has been no Reinhardt season in New York for the past six years. Yet each year, for no visible reason, Kommer arrives in the late fall and deposits his duffle at